COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVE COMMISSION

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVE COMMISSION NATHANIEL HAMILTON - CHAIR Tim Baack, Stephen Jansen, Pamela Malone, Camille Mays, Eric Moore, Shawn Muhammad, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Amy Orta, Will Perry, Tammy Rivera, Jeff Roman, Fred Royal, Damien Smith, Jamaal Smith, Huezong Yang, and Gina Zarcone Staff Assistant: Linda Elmer, 414-286-2231, lelmer@milwaukee.gov Legislative Assistant: Dana Zelazny, 414-286-8679, Dana.Zelazny@milwaukee.gov Thursday, February 11, 2021 1:00 PM Virtual Amended 2/9/21 -- Items #10 and #11 were added. Please join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/658322933 or by phone: (872) 240-3311 Access Code: 658-322-933 1. Roll call. Meeting convened: 1:04 P.M. Members present: Nate Hamilton, Damien Smith, Fred Royal, Gina Zarcone, Tim Baack, Steve Jansen, Huezong Yang, Amy Orta, Jamaal Smith, Tammy Rivera, Pamela Malone, Jeff Roman Members excused: Camille Mays, Shawn Muhammad, Christine Neumann Ortiz 2. Review and approval of the minutes of January 14th. Mr. Royal, moved, seconded by Mr. Jamaal Smith, for approval of the minutes. There were no objections. 3. Create a budget for the $50,000 budgeted for 2021. Mr. Damien Smith said his committee had worked on it, but is ready to present it yet. Mr. Jamaal Smith received a proposal - $600 for a presentation and $275/hour (that's a community group discount from $400/hour) and he came up with a proposed budget of $4,000. Mr. Royal moved, seconded by Mr. Jamaal Smith to hold this until all committees can provide their numbers with documentation. All committees should have their documentation provided prior to the March 25th meeting. 4. Discussion relating to members who consistently don't attend meetings. City of Milwaukee Page 1 COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVE Meeting Minutes February 11, 2021 COMMISSION There has been limited attendance by Will Perry, so if someone knows him and would like to contact him. Ms. Rivera is present today and she will now be attending more in the future. Mr. Yang was also present for this meeting. Members will let the staff assistant know if they cannot attend a meeting to ensure the body does have a quorum. 5. Possible virtual public meeting? Mr. Hamilton said he will be working with the FPC to make sure a proper audit can be done of the Collins agreement with the goal of having a virtual public meeting the end of March. Mr. Damien Smith will work on getting the word out through social media and newspapers. Mr. Damien Smith asked who will staff the social media accounts - who has expertise to do this? Mr. Hamilton had wanted interns to handle social media accounts as well as provide clerical support. Mr. Baack noted that Council members have also expressed support so they would be a resource to get the word out. Mr. Hamilton asked to see if a community member would be interested in being added to the Outreach Committee to assist with social media. Mr. Damien Smith suggested recruiting a young person to do this and also put something in the budget. The next Outreach meeting is on the 18th. Social media will be added to that agenda and Mr. Hamilton will attend that meeting. Mr. Royal suggested the first town hall meeting should be to introduce the CCC to the community. Ms. Rivera suggested the Council President's office be approached about getting intern time. Mr. Hamilton suggested getting short bios of commission members to print out and Mr. Damien Smith suggested adding bulletin points of the SOP to any handout; Ms. Rivera noted that the initial information is already out there and needs to be updated. That work was done by Jeff Roman and Deborah Blanks. Mr. Royal suggested the public needs to know where the Commission came from and what the Council charged the Commission with. 6. Milwaukee Police Department training on community oriented and constitutional policing. Mr. Jamaal Smith said the MPD has a concern and Fire and Police Commissioner Soler will be meeting with the Acting Chief and MPD administration and will report back to Mr. Jamaal Smith and Mr. Royal. Mr. Jansen said he is concerned as it's been a while since MPD got back to the CCC and when is too long to wait for a response? Mr. Jamaal Smith said he had reached out to the acting chief Norman last week and the conversation with Commissioner Soler was held last week. Mr. Royal said the hesitation with the COP SOP moving forward is due to the change in chiefs and Mr. DeSiato has inserted himself into the conversation. Mr. Jamaal Smith will reach out to Inspector Murphy and Commissioner Soler about the status of the COP training, as well as if CCC members or a committee could either be involved or monitor the training. Mr. Royal said that the Collins agreement constitutional training is currently occurring; the impasse is with the COP SOP as the Wisconsin Public Policy Forum is researching five cities for best policies and the majority of work has been done on which peer cities are doing what. The Public Policy Forum wanted to get more information on citizen involvement and get a contact for each city for that involvement - it is anticipated the report will be done by the beginning of March. 7. CCC member serving on the Fire and Police Commission? Appointments to the FPC are made by the mayor and confirmed by the Common Council. The other alternative would be to have a liaison from the CCC to the FPC. Mr. Fred Royal has applied to be on the FPC and Ms. Malone would like to serve as City of Milwaukee Page 2 COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVE Meeting Minutes February 11, 2021 COMMISSION well. Mr. Jansen would like to have someone independent of the mayor and chosen by the CCC serve as a member. Mr. Royal noted that there is a website that anyone wishing to serve on a committee can apply for any boards, including FPC. Chief Brunson didn't want any CCC members serving on the Use of Force Subcommittee, but what is Acting Chief Norman's position? Mr.Jansen would like to serve on the FPC or one of the independent committees, but that is during part of his work hours. Ms. Malone would also be interested and she would like to push Mr. Royal into serving on the FPC as well. 8. Feedback from the Office of Violence Prevention on lessons learned during creation of Blueprint for Peace, possible creation of hubs and police union involvement. Mr. Jamaal Smith said one of the biggest lessons was stressing community involvement and the plan was developed through conversations with the public and there were over 1,000 young people involved and numerous summits across Milwaukee through a 12-month process. The process is going to take time and cannot be rushed. Many people have suggestions for violence prevention. The approach isn't a bureaucratic one, but needs to be a voice of the community, especially those who have been highly impacted by systemic violence. Then-chief Flynn said that the police are being called way too much for concerns that are not public safety issues, such as homelessness, mental health issues, etc. Mr. Jamaal Smith also noted that need to stay true to the course, regardless of who does or does not support you. There still seems to be some support from MPD for Blueprint for Peace. Mr. Hamilton noted that the CCC does not engage with the community enough and really hasn't since the hubs from 2019 and he asked how more summits or community engagement could be done? Mr. Jamaal Smith noted that public outreach is more difficult during a pandemic and there is a need to think differently than was done in the past. Ms. Rivera said the FPC spent $20,000 for a portal, which didn't result in great results - feedback wasn't limited solely from city residents and there was no ability to guarantee anonymity and the public was leery of providing feedback on the police to the police. Ms. Rivera said the best way to get data is face-to-face, which might be possible as early as May/June with vaccines. Mr. Hamilton asked if Council members could be requested to hold these types of conversations and Mr. Baack suggested having a CCC member attend these community meetings. Mr. Hamilton suggested having CCC members attach themselves to their local alderpersons with a set list of questions that get asked by all. Maybe have a CCC member present at the MPD Crime and Safety meeting. This will be scheduled for the next meeting as well. 9. Discussion on CJII reports contained in file 200315 and MPD's status of Collins settlement agreement goals. Mr. Hamilton said he met with Leon Todd, who is putting together an audit team to audit MPD - he hasn't gotten back yet so Mr. Hamilton will reach out for an update and timeline. Mr. Mozina noted that CJI is already auditing and there is a great amount of details in the reports Mr. Hamilton read the titles for, so this is going on. Mr. Hamilton believes that the CCC may need to review these reports in more detail and discuss them at a future meeting. Mr. Mozina explained what the COPS grant did, which was just narrowly passed by the Common Council and felt that those officers could have been better used for community relations and adherence to the Collins agreement. Ms. Rivera said MPD seems to be stuck in what "community engagement" is and it doesn't just involve having a barbeque and she doesn't think they know how to do community engagement differently. The CCC will come up with a list to create goals relating to the Collins settlement to see if progress is being made and address it if no City of Milwaukee Page 3 COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVE Meeting Minutes February 11, 2021 COMMISSION progress is not being made. 10. Commission messaging around police reform and alternatives to "defund the police". Mr. Fred Royal said there was an article about Denver in which mental health professionals or case managers are sent out instead of police and this has led to a high success rate of improved community relations and there has been no related violence or arrests. Mr. Royal suggested the community engagement plan should re-imagine a public safety response, such as doing as Denver does. The Denver program cost $3 million. "Defunding the police" would be more accurately described as "Reallocation of funding"; Mr. Baack noted that Milwaukee has done some of this, involving the homeless, and the question is how the community re-allocates its funding (such as funding for Office of Violence Prevention vs. the MPD budget). Mr. Hamilton thought the CCC needed to create a message about where it stands on these positions. Mr. Royal thinks the CCC is just the vehicle to convene the conversation with the public and the template used for the Blueprint for Peace should be followed. Mr. Jamaal Smith thinks there might be a possibility to collaborate with the county to expand services rather than solely create city programs. Mr. Zang noted that it's important to have culturally specific mental health services or other social services as many cultures approach mental health issues differently. Mr. Jamaal Smith noted that it's hard to get past the "defund the police" with a large segment of the pro-police public. Mr. Jamaal Smith believes that representation matters, but a person does not need to identify with a particular group, but can serve that group. This will be on the next agenda and also include how to get the community involved in this discussion. 11. Commission position on Sen. Wangaard PACT bill proposals, relating to, but not limited to, state revenue funding, hiring/firing of police and fire chiefs and FPC board membership. The bill is targeted at both Dane County and the city of Milwaukee. Mr. Royal will send these to Ms. Elmer to add to the file. This will be scheduled for the next meeting. Mr. Royal would like to add a standing item of "committee reports" on each agenda. This will be done. Meeting adjourned: 3:14 P.M. Linda M. Elmer Staff Assistant 200315 Communication relating to the 2020/2021 activities of the Community Collaborative Commission. Sponsors: THE CHAIR City of Milwaukee Page 4